Discovery Centers in January

     I love watching the children work at the Discovery Centers where they are creative, inventive and use their imaginations.

    This month, I added a tinkering center, which was very popular, and the children enjoyed using various materials to invent things. At sharing time the children described their inventions and I was constantly amazed at the detail in their descriptions (i.e. a wedding rocket that could take the dating couple to the stars or a box that could keep dinosaur eggs safe). 

     At the art center, we explored collage making and the children made a snowy day collage and snowmen inspired by the book Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. 

     Play dough was also a favorite and snowmen, even melted ones, were created and reshaped. 

     Small worlds were built at the sensory table and stories about animals in winter were imagined and told.

     Visitors to the storytelling center retold familiar stories we read in December and I loved listening in as they used their "story voices."

     Construction, regardless of the fact that I added no new materials, continued to be the favorite center of many of the children.  There they worked together to build structures and are learning to collaborate and cooperate.

     Loose parts, which was also new this month, was less popular and I was surprised by this.  They seemed very interested when I introduced it, but very few children chose to work here. 

      That's it for January! Looking forward to the many ways in which the children will surprise and delight in February!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jackie